By: Emma Gonzalez
Contributor
Students at the university found ways to appreciate culture and immigrants, connect with others and learn about different experiences during “Immigration Week” with the UndocuAlly Student Alliance.
Starting Oct. 12 and ending Oct. 16, an event was planned each day with different opportunities to celebrate culture and identity and learn and connect with the community.
“It’s a fun event to start off the week,” business administration major Jeremiah Parra, a senior and president of UASA, said, “talking about our heritage, painting it and winners ultimately got prizes.”
The first event, which took place on Oct. 12 from 1-2 p.m., allowed students to create art and convey a story of their own through the artwork.
The second event took place on Oct. 13 from 2:30-3:30 p.m., which was the “I Stand With Immigrants” tabling event, where students tested their knowledge with a myth or fact game, and were able to learn more about the community.
“We’ve been doing this one for three years now, it’s like our go to,” Parra said.
The following day, Oct. 14, from 2:30-3:30 p.m., the “For Our Community with Care” event was active, where students could put together care packages for community members affected by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The packages consisted of hygiene and health products and students could add personalized messages showing support and love.
“We wanted to make care packages, we wanted to give back, this is what our club is about, so we thought it would be perfect,” Parra said.
The final event, “What We Call Home,” which took place on Thursday, Oct. 15 from 2:30-4:30 p.m., was the biggest event, with food, music and multiple events to participate in.
“This one, we wanted to end it off with a bang, we thought this would be the perfect way to end off our Immigration week.”
Different clubs and organizations joined the celebration with their own tables such as the Social Work Organization, the African Student Association, Delta Phi Epsilon and the Organization of Latin American Students.
“When it comes to immigrant students, I feel like a lot of people forget that it can be African student as well, it’s not talked about as much,” psychology major Eva Khan, a sophomore and event coordinator for ASA, said.
At the ASA table, there was an activity where students could take a sticker and place it on the map, representing where they are from.
“You’re learning about other cultures too, so it’s like you get to see a little bit of everybody and a bit of everything,” Khan said.
At the SWO table, there was a take a message, leave a message activity where students write words of encouragement, leave it in a basket and then take one for themselves.
“Social workers work in that field a lot, we work with people from different cultures and we work with cultural humanity, so I feel like events like this are important to us,” social work major Jada Abel, a senior, said.
At Delta Phi Epsilon’s table, there was a painting activity where students could paint small wooden houses and let them represent a childhood home.
According to the American Immigration Council, 16.2% of Connecticut residents are immigrants, and make up 19.5% of the workforce.
“A big message that we wanted to achieve is that our club doesn’t only represent Latinos, there are so many other people that are undocumented and immigrants,” Parra said. “When we collaborate with these various clubs, we want to show that we’re all representative of the same branch, and we all have the same goal at the end of the day.”
